Guilford's holiday shopping season for handmade work runs on a tight schedule. Guilford Art Center opens its Holiday Expo on Friday, Nov. 13. The next morning, the Shoreline ArtsTrail opens private studios across Branford, Guilford and Madison for its 26th annual Open Studios Weekend. Both events start on Church Street. Four of the trail's Guilford stops are listed on that street, two of them inside the Art Center building that houses the Expo.
So the weekend is easy to plan. Start at the Church Street cluster. From there, follow the yellow signs out to the rest of the trail's largest group of studios.
Friday night at 411 Church Street
The Holiday Expo turns the Art Center's gallery into an indoor market with handmade work by more than 175 local and regional artists and makers. You'll find jewelry, ceramics, glass, textiles, wood, ornaments and other small pieces. This year the Lyme Artisans Guild has its own showcase. The opening reception runs Friday, Nov. 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. with refreshments. After that, the Expo stays up through Jan. 10, 2027.
The Art Center's holiday shop page gives regular hours of Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The noon Sunday opening shapes the opening weekend, since the studios open two hours earlier. Holiday weeks can bring schedule changes, so call the Center before a visit around Thanksgiving or late December.
Members get 10% off Expo purchases for the whole run. During two shopping weekends, Nov. 13–15 and Dec. 4–6, the member discount goes up to 15%. The first of those weekends lines up exactly with the ArtsTrail. Zip06's preview of the Expo gives the same address, hours and reception time.
Saturday morning, the studios open on the same street
Open Studios Weekend runs Saturday, Nov. 14, and Sunday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's free and juried. Every piece has to be handmade by the artist in their own studio. The Shoreline ArtsTrail's artist directory lists four Guilford stops on Church Street:
- Alice Chittenden, ceramic artist, at Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St. Her profile talks about tactile clay, a balance of form and surface, and functional pieces made to feel good in the hand.
- Patricia Shoemaker, painter, also at the Art Center. She paints landscapes, figures and still lifes in oil, pastel and watercolor, and her work centers on light and atmosphere.
- Jackie McGuire, jewelry and belt buckle designer, at 20 Church Street. Her pieces use garden and coastal motifs, set with beach stones, pearls and semi-precious stones.
- Christine Penry, hand papermaker, also at 20 Church Street. She works in pulp painting and natural inclusions, using Thai Kozo mulberry fiber.
This is where the Expo's hours matter. On Saturday, the Art Center and the trail both open at 10 a.m. On Sunday, the trail opens at 10 but the Expo's regular hours start at noon. A Sunday visitor can spend the first two hours at studios elsewhere in town and come back to Church Street once the gallery opens.
Why the route runs mostly through Guilford
The trail covers 38 artists in three towns, and Guilford has the biggest share by a wide margin. In the ArtsTrail's own announcement, which Zip06 published on Oct. 15, Branford and Madison have 10 artists each. The Guilford list is nearly as long as those two put together. Leaving Church Street, a weekend spent mostly inside town lines still reaches close to half the trail.
The group began in 2001, when a small number of shoreline artists set up an annual open studios event. The idea was to let residents and weekend visitors meet artists and see how the work gets made. Painter Eileen Eder, a member artist, described the weekend this way in the announcement:
"Shoreline ArtsTrail's Open Studios Weekend is a rare chance to step into the creative world of local professional artists in their private studios—and a perfect opportunity to discover meaningful, one-of-a-kind art that will enrich your home or office."
Many of the Guilford studios are in homes on residential roads, so the signs do most of the wayfinding. Yellow "Open Studio" signs mark the participating studios. Below are the Guilford stops off Church Street, grouped by what you'll find there, with the street each studio is listed on.
Clay, wood, stone and fiber
- Mike Bower, Watering Pond Road. A woodturner whose profile puts the focus on the forms each piece of wood suggests and on the uniqueness of every finished piece.
- David Frank, Great Hill Road. A potter who calls his work narrative, with pieces meant to carry stories and emotion. His profile says he has taught at Guilford Art Center, which links him back to the Church Street end of the weekend.
- Eva Polizzi, Northwood Drive. Her fiber and ceramic pieces work with coded communication, including knotted strings, runes and Morse code.
- Sandee Spahr, Greenwood Lane. Her recent work focuses on stone sculpture and painting.
Prints and paintings of the shoreline
- Jan Vanderburg, Sylvan Hills Road. She makes reduction linocuts, building up the color one ink layer at a time.
- Deborah Greco, Tanner Marsh Road. Her paintings mix landscape realism, impressionism and abstraction, drawing on shoreline marshes and changing light.
- Eileen Eder, Uncas Point Road. She paints contemporary realist still lifes and landscapes in oil.
- Marjorie Sopkin, Water Street. Water, reflected movement and playful imagery come up again and again in her work.
- Christine Drago, Boston Street. She paints watercolors for their light, mood and tonal contrast.
- Steven Plaziak, Crabapple Lane. He works in watercolor, oil or gouache, starting with quick value studies and following the light.
Studio subjects closer to home
- Laurie Flaherty, Hazel Road. Her current subjects are pollinators and native plants, with a focus on biodiversity.
- Ellis Sant'Andrea, Long Hill Road. Her representational oil paintings give everyday subjects like food and household objects close attention.
- Marjan Babaie Nasr, Whitfield Street. A painter and art teacher whose subjects include flowers, portraits, Persian-effects painting and calligraphy. She has also exhibited at Guilford Art Center.
Paper trail maps are available at libraries, town halls and sponsor locations in all three towns. A printable map and full artist profiles are at shorelineartstrail.org. Sponsors this year include Guilford Art Center, BACA, Page Hardware & Appliance Co. and Tommy Sullivan's Café.
A weekend plan built around the hours
With both schedules side by side, the opening weekend falls into place:
- Friday, Nov. 13, 5–7 p.m. Expo opening reception at Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St. The members' 15% weekend starts here.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. Start on Church Street. Visit Chittenden and Shoemaker at the Art Center, plus McGuire and Penry at 20 Church Street, then head out to the studios across town before the trail closes at 4 p.m.
- Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. to noon. Studios away from Church Street, while the Expo gallery is still closed under its regular Sunday hours.
- Sunday, Nov. 15, noon to 4 p.m. Return to the Expo for anything you passed up on Friday, while the trail's last studio hours are still running.
Where the season picks up again in December
Guilford's second busy weekend of the season lines up with the Expo's second members' weekend, Dec. 4–6. The Town of Guilford calendar lists the Guilford Tree Lighting for Friday, Dec. 4, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. On the same days, the Friends of Guilford Free Library hold their holiday sale at the library, 67 Park St. It runs Friday, Dec. 4, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a flutist performing at 10:30 a.m., and Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On that Friday, you can go from a morning at the library sale to an afternoon at the Expo and still make the 5:30 tree lighting.
A big part of knowing Guilford is knowing which weekends are set up this way, when a single street holds a whole day of plans. If you're thinking about a home here, or about what your current Guilford home is worth, Claire Kilmer is glad to talk it through over coffee after a stop on Church Street. Get your free home valuation.
